Louie's Mission
by xXThunderflameXx
Summary: Some time after Pikmin 2, Olimar and Louie venture to Earth on routine missions to collect new species. But when Olimar goes missing, things become far from routine, as Louie must embark on a quest to save his friend, the Earth, and likely the Universe.
1. Greenhouse

It was Louie's first rain storm on Earth. Hocotate was primarily desert, so it didn't get much rain. When the planet did get it, Louie thought that it was impressive. How naive he realized he was. Here, the raindrops were as large as a him. Luckily, neither the pikmin nor him were actually in any danger. They had found a large glass structure a little before the rain started, which Louie was certain Olimar would say it was a greenhouse created by the Colossals.

It reminded him why he actually came to the greenhouse. Two days ago, Olimar ran off. His radio transmitter stopped broadcasting – which, because of Louie getting stranded, could only be deactivated by the wearer's choice. Louie had been shocked to the core. When he was left on the planet after repaying the debt, he admitted that it was his fault, but not his choice. Someone had to be crazy to deliberately abandon their ship on such a dangerous planet; but Louie was confident that, if Olimar could keep his sanity when he crash-landed, he wouldn't have snapped on their monthly specimen-collection trip. Louie didn't know what was going on, but he was determined to get to the bottom of it. And to get his co-worker, and indeed his friend, back.

Louie pushed a branch of some thin-leafed foliage plant out of his way. He knew why Olimar had called the original inhabitants of the planet 'Colossals' – every vestige of their past presence suggested an enormity dwarfing the tallest Hocotatan. Then there was the actual body. Olimar had taken it better than he he had, and Olimar hadn't been able to speak for the next 5 days.

Before Louie could delve further down memory lane, a sharp whistle brought him back to reality. It was distinctly Olimar's. Overjoyed, one of the Red Pikmin broke rank and ran to the source of the whistle (which was inconveniently located behind a flower pot). Louie was more hesitant. After two days of searching, he wasn't sure how to respond to actually reuniting with his co-worker.

He dropped the question as a new sound filled the air. A fluid-ish, sickly sound pierced Louie's ears, as the distinct cry of a hurt pikmin accompanied it. Horrified, Louie raced behind the pot.

And almost ran into the blade. It was a rainbow of colors, which were constantly shifting. The energy blade had went through the pikmin's head, leaving a disturbing exit wound. The blade retracted, and the pikmin fell to the ground, wilting quickly. Louie pried his eyes from the corpse, now indistinguishable from the ground, and looked up.

"Oh hi, Louie!" Olimar cried, smiling and waving his hand.


	2. Confrontation

!-- page size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in P margin-bottom: 0.08in --

Well, thank you so much for reading. Just a forewarning, many of the readers that have seen this before commented that this can get confusing. **THIS IS QUITE INTENTIONAL**, Louie has no frigging clue what's going on. Neither do you. Expect things to get more convulted before they get less.

* * *

"You don't seem happy to see me," Olimar stated. He was holding his arms out, begging for a hug. The energy sword he had killed a pikmin with was still live in his left hand.

"Yeah, seeing a pikmin's brain get poked out does that to a person," Louie replied, "Wh-Why did you do that?"

"Well that's easy, silly," Olimar answered, "The machines told me to!"

"Machines. Like the voices?" Louie asked.

"No, voices are for crazy people," Olimar replied, "Look!"

Olimar dug his hands into his suit, and up through his helmet. He brought his hands to his forehead, and began to claw the skin away. Louie turned away, and puked.

Louie could see naked skull when he looked back. Of course, that wasn't the main attraction. A LED on Olimar's skull was blinking rapidly. Small... things, somewhat resembling tiny, tripedal spark plugs began crawling up Olimar's smiling face. The mass of them frothed on his forehead, attacking the bloody tear he made, After a few seconds, the mass retreated, leaving bald skin in their place. Louie looked closely, and saw a blinking green light pulsing from his captains forehead.

"Olimar, you're... you need to come with me," Louie said, nervously. Olimar cocked his head, appearantly to a shrub. The shrub seemed to be making him upset.

"Aw, please? He's like my bestest friend!" Olimar pouted, "Sorry, Louie, they won't let me."

"Olimar, yo..." Louie began. Olimar swung the energy sword, coming millimeters from Louie helmet. Louie stared cross-eyed at the weapon.

"Louie, I don't want to hurt you," Olimar said, in an incongruently comforting tone while holding a lethal weapon, "What the machines say goes. I can't come with you, and that's that." The captain lowered the sword and broke off, running behind a tree. Louie chased after him, only to find that Olimar had dissapeared.

"That was not a reassuring event, was it?" The S.S. Parrotfish (Yes, my name for the ship from Pikmin 2) commented.

* * *

-It is imperative we activate the SDRPC now- A blue light said, in a circular, very dark room, -We were lucky that Cepah did not send a search party when IOB first dissapeared; with this information, he will act to the promp.-

-We have also been fortunate that the OBOSTs have not detected our presence!- A red light countered, -They keep an eye on this planet, however blind it may be. Once we embed this planet in a 6-dimensional pocket, they will notice! It can only buy us so much time: they will locate us after some time of digging. The exact time will depend on who will be investigating, what search patterns they use, and much of it will be up to sheer chance. I can say for certain, though, that we will not have advanced far enough to counter their attack!-

-The problem with your argument, REAS- a black light (Yes, a black light in darkness, even when black lights aren't possible in daylight) rumbled, -Is that the OBOSTs will also investigate the retrieval team. If Louie is found by the OBOSTs, he will leak information which will accelerate their search, as will the corpses of our fallen units. He must remain on the planet now.-

Six metal spires extended themselves in an octahedral arrangement around Earth. Spikes shot out from the pillars, sending sparks along the tips spiring upwards. Eventually, they hit a maroon glass sphere on each pillar, which shot a similarly maroon spark into the center of the planet. After a half-minute, the surface of a maroon sphere could be seen coming up from the ground, enveloping everything below it. After the sphere had just passed the edge of Earth's atmosphere, it stopped growing. The surface of the sphere became increasingly jerky, erratic. A certain pattern began to emerge, though, and after a minute the waves on the sphere were as orderly as Adrian Monk's closet. Suddenly, the waves froze, and the sphere began shrinking. From the way the space looked, it would have seemed nothing had ever been there.

* * *

**Confused? Super!** **I really liked the idea of having the 'lights' talk with accronyms - not only do you have no idea what they mean, it's just what they'd say as what they are. Hopefully, you're smart enough to use context clues to be able to read that particualr passage.**


	3. Lost

"Prepare to blast off," Louie ordered.

"This greenhouse is devoid of predators," The S.S. Parrotfish protested, "If we do not need to depart, we might as well conserve fuel."

"We need to do two things," Louie replied, "First, we need to contact Cepah. He needs to know about my little... episode with Olimar. Then we're going back to the Awakening Woods, and revisiting the Cyborg palace. It's the last place we went before Olimar went nuts, and there were machines there, and there are now mechanical-spider-things that heal Olimar when he... rips his face open."

--

"What do you mean, 'it's not there?'" Louie asked, "It's a huminslamur planet, how could you loose it?"

"There's no need to cuss, I am merely telling you the facts," The Parrotfish replied, "I am not receiving any signals from Hocotate. It's just gone."

"Well, what if this cloud cover is blocking the signal?" Louie postulated.

"Our subspace broadcasts are protected by a bubble of space itself. They could penetrate a light year of lead without a trace of signal loss," The Parrotfish explained.

"Well, these can't be normal clouds," Louie commented, "They're at ten times the altitude of normal stratus clouds, for one. Maybe there's something about them that... disrupts the bubble... or something."

"The spectrometer readings of the clouds are anomalous. Very well, I will look into it," the Parrotfish replied. The Onions were perplexed as to why the ship began ascending, but they loyally followed suit. As they climbed higher into the planet's atmosphere, Louie was amazed at how high the clouds went, and began wondering if they ever stopped. Eventually, the Onions refused to climb any higher.

"Processing," The Parrotfish stated, "Louie, I am detecting a peculiar variety of radiation. It appears to have mutagenic properties, which is the most likely reason for the Onions to stop. Unfortunately, I am still not detecting any subspace signals."

"Then we keep going," Louie responded.

"Louie, I am afraid to expose you to this level of radiation. It's weird, and it could very easily be dangerous," the Parrotfish protested, "However, it does not appear to affect metallic bonds. I suggest releasing my Research Pod to continue this expedition."

"You can do that? Detach that while flying?" Louie inquired.

"Serving as my nose cone, releasing the Research Pod would sorrily reduce my aerodynamic properties; therefore attempting anything more than hovering would be inadvisable," The Parrotfish explained, "However, yes, I am fully air-worthy without it."

"Then do it," Louie ordered. With a hiss, the Parrotfish's Reseach Pod detached from the main body, leaving behind what could easily be mistaken for a gold-plated tin can with rockets. Through a monitor in his cockpit, Louie could see the clouds gradually thin, until the Research Pod broke free of the clouds.

"Where the hell are we?" Louie asked. Instead of the traditional starry space, the Reseach Pod's cameras were detecting a black void. Pulses of colors occasionally lit the scene. There were explosions of greens and reds. Sparks of blues, and double-helixes of purples and oranges. There were thousands of patterns neither the Parrotfish nor Louie could identify. It was strikingly beautiful, and at the same time, positively terrifying.

"Perhaps, where IN hell are we," The Parrotfish remarked.

"I don't remember dieing," Louie replied, "And you're here. Machines don't get an afterlife."

"Remember, I was once Cepah's uncle, the Hocotatan Alfred Todastolo," the Parrotfish reminded, "My exact identity was transferred to the computer of this experimental ship, even though my memories died with my organic body."

"Ah, but what if Alfred was the one with a soul attached, and his is roasting in the fire and oxygen while some computer is merely imitating what he was like," Louie asked, "Until proven otherwise, I think we should assume we are not sleeping with space guppies yet."

"Perhaps you are right," The Parrotfish replied, "We have an hour before sunrise. I will return my Research pod to my fuselage, and return us to a geostationary orbit. We will land in the Awakening Woods as planned, and look for clues as to restore both Olimar and Earth to their proper states."


	4. Communication

The Parrotfish plopped down on the Awakening Woods. It was getting better about landing, but Louie still dreaded the impact. As the Onion returned to Earth, the Parrotfish spat Louie out of the cockpit like a watermelon seed - yet another daily experience Louie dreaded.

Louie walked over to the Onion, and called 50 red pikmin for his spelunking expedition. They didn't come out. Louie tried the action again, but instead of the typical display, the words 'I'm afraid' appeared.

"Is this the Onion?" Louie asked. The screen did not change. Louie was getting a little frustrated. His greatest asset wasn't responding, which is never an assuring experience.

-You're not supposed to be doing this, Brisingr- The thought seemed to come out of no where, and came as a great surprise for Louie. He noticed a brighter blue glow from his antennae.

-Good point,- The thought remarked. Louie was sure he was going insane.

-You know why he's doing this, right? He doesn't want to loose you, too.-

"Who is doing that!?" Louie cried, spinning around as though he were expecting someone to be there.

"Are you all righ...Louie, my optical receptors didn't record you calling the blue pikmin," The

Parrotfish stated. 50 blue pikmin spontaneously piled out of the Blue Onion, and ran to Louie's side. -I'm good at construction, but I never got the hang of fighting.-

"You're, you're the blue Onion, aren't you?" Louie asked. One of the pikmin pointed to a cave where the landing site had been in pikmin 1.

* * *

**Sorry about the short chapter.**


	5. Fuel source

The cave really had changed since the Hocotatans had been in last. Louie remembered patches of metal alongside the walls, sure, but now the cave was almost entirely a maze of white metalic tunnels. Several robotic Dweevils were carrying various robotic parts around the network of tunnels. Louie noticed a red dot on his suit.

"Opliec!" Louie exclaimed. A turret on the ceiling was pointing strait at him, and with the surprise, Louie was barely able to dodge the rapid-fire energy rounds. As energy pulses fed from red wires into the needle-like weapon, Louie tossed one of his pikmin onto it. After a few hits, the gun fell to the metal-tiled ground.

The antennae on Louie's helmet began to glow blue, and Louie felt the presence of another consciousness enter his mind.

-A thought presents itself. As I understand it, your ship requires a fuel to fly,- The Blue Onion remarked, -Please, ask it how much it still holds in its reserve.-

"Now that you mention it, I am running on the low side," The Parrotfish answered, upon hearing the question from Louie, "That is a good point. If we can't re-connect to Hocotate, or find another fuel supply on Earth, I will be unable to fly. I told you to fill me up before we left for this planet, but, as usual, no body listens to me." (And it's true, isn't it?)

-You will find an dweevil on this sublevel carrying a fuel cell. You may find it useful- the Blue Onion stated, -I will direct you to it-

And the Onion was right. After following a few 'rights', 'lefts,' and 'straits' through the maze-like sub-level, and taking out a few more turrets, a dweevil was carrying an object closely resembling a Hocotatan energy cell. The particular Dweevil had no method of defense, so taking the cyborg down had been a simple task.

Things got somewhat more complex after the Dweevil had been dispatched. Appearance sensing a disturbance, two metal spheres dropped from the ceiling. Four appendages protruded from each sphere, and the tops lifted up, revealing a barrel which looked suspiciously like a gun..

Louie threw his pikmin on the top of one of the robots, while trying to dodge the energy bullets from them. At Louie's surprise, the mechanican's metallic top seemed to take damage. After a few second, the robot stopped functioning all together, and Louie turned the pikmin onto the other 'bot. Unlike the first, this robot quickly bobbed up and down, dislodging the pikmin on it.

"Ah, you robots learn," Louie remarked. Having experienced in other beasts shaking, Louie was undeterred by it, and merely proceeded to throw more pikmin onto the robot. The pikmin disabled the gun, but to Louie's surprise, would not further harm the robot.

"Ah, why can't I kill it?" Louie asked.

-It is more valuable to us alive- the Blue Onion answered, -It is likely these machines possess a hive-mind.-

"And alive..." Louie muttered, "That's brilliant." A window into what these machines were thinking. It was espionage at its peak.

* * *

The pikmin navigated through the metallic labyrinth back to the ship, bringing the defensive robot and fuel cell with it. They didn't encounter any more opposition, which was definitely a plus. The Parrotfish retrieved the mechanican, and worked on reading its thoughts.

The ship noticed the pikmin taking the fuel cell to a downed turret, hooking up power lines from the remains to the cylindrical device. The Parrotfish was still in the dark about what the fuel cell was for, something it didn't exactly enjoy.

"Ah, you told me why you want the robot," The Parrotfish said, "Care to fill me in on the cylinder?"

"To be honest, I don't know myself," Louie replied. The wires connecting the robot technologies were pulsing with energy. A window on the fuel cell showed a glowing mass growing inside.

-The mass you see inside is a kind of mater called quantazon- The Blue Onion stated, -The main particles are small, around the same size as a photon. It forms very stable compounds, but under the right conditions, it is easily annihilated. With a good imagination and knowledge of geometry, you can create a molecule to preform almost any task.-

"Including making a ship fly, right?" Louie guessed. Considering the conversation leading him to the fuel cell, it was the logical assumption.

-It will be an interesting challenge augmenting this fuel cell to your ship, but if I am successful, your ship will have a clean, renewable fuel source. You are correct, Louie- The Blue Onion replied.

"You want to _WHAT!_?" The Parrotfish exclaimed.

"Come on. How many times have you upgraded our suits?" Louie asked.

"That's totally different!" The Parrotfish replied, "If one of my upgrades explodes, all you have to do is hold your breath until I beam you back. In contrast, if my engines explode, we're sitting ducks for the nocturnal beasts! I'll be the first to admit I'm barely above intergalactic safety protocols. You start messing around in there, and... bang!"

"You're a solid-state rocket, ship," Louie stated, "The more your fuel is burned, the lower quality it is. How's it going to feel when we try to lift off, only to have your engines stall?"

"I don't know how to use that thing," the Parrotfish protested.

"Which is why the pikmin will be working on it," Louie replied.

"...You've got to be kidding me..."

"Ship, if you don't let the Blue Onion use the pikmin for the job, he'll be using ME," Louie stated.

"Second thought, sounds good to me," the Parrotfish chirped.


	6. Poking the beast

"Well, I think we've gotten about as many clues here as we'll ever get," Louie said, on the edge of the sublevel-entrance. Sub-level two had pretty boring. The whole place seemed to be some kind of refueling station for the various robots roaming around. It was kind of reminiscent of the Star Trek Borg ships. There had been very little weapon turrets or offensive drones – presumably, the robots had assumed that the first level would have killed anything that had wandered into the cave.

The most adventure had been when Louie thought it would have been fun to attack one of the slumbering cyborg dweevils...

* * *

"Come on," Louie had whined, "These things are our enemies. They abducted Olimar, and brainwashed him in some sick, perverted fashion. We'd have to be nuts not to retaliate!"

"Yes, but such an unprovoked attack..." the ship replied.

"They've provoked us far too much. It's time I did a little provoking of my own," Louie said. He sicked a few blue pikmin onto the dweevil. It got up, and walked around madly a little, before exploding. Louie raised his hand, only to be disappointed as Olimar didn't high-five it.

The disappointment was expanded on as four offensive drones, as well as a Gatling Groink, came out of the regeneration pods, and proceeded to attack the captain. Louie found the best strategy was to stand in between two of the cyborgs (The Parrotfish had discovered that the defensive drones, though encased in a metal shell, had organic components like the dweevils and Groink), and dodge the shots at the last second, allowing them to hit themselves. Eventually, only the Groink was left, which Louie was able to take down. From the destruction of the dweevil to the return of the Groink to the Research Pod, 10 pikmin had been lost.

Louie jumped down the cave, and fell around 30 Hocotatan feet to the next sub-level. This sub-level encompassed a noticeably less area than the other two. It resembled one of the floors of the Pleated Snagret, though with one major difference. A massive, silver orb, somewhat resembling an Onion, was suspended from the ceiling. Occasionally, a dweevil would crawl underneath it, carrying a pikavore corpse of some kind or another. The orb would suck up the corpse in what appeared to be a Hocotatan Vector beam. Cords extending through the ceiling would send red pulses upward, while gases would steam through vents.

Olimar was on a platform connected to the side of the machine, focusing some kind of device at the silver shell. He looked down, to see what used to be his co-workers.

"Oh hi!" Olimar said, in the disturbingly cheerful voice Louie had kind of expected, "I knew you would make it. They said you've be too incompetent to come back here, but I knew better!"

"Yeah, thanks for having confidence in me," Louie replied, "So what the qué is that thing?"

"Oh this? This is just the generator keeping this place alive. Efficient, reliable, I think this is my best work ever!" Olimar boasted. It got Louie smiling.

"Keeping this place alive?" Louie told the Parrotfish, "We take this out..."

"Aw, considering how you attacked our dweevil in the regeneration layer, I knew you'd think that. That's why they told me to put in a defense system!" Olimar stated.

"Then it's not worth it, Louie," the Parrotfish remarked.

"I'm not that stupid!" Louie snapped, "The geyser out of this hell-hole is behind that generator-Onion thing. Let's go."

"Hey, what do you know? I'm not stupid either. Have fun!" Olimar shouted. Before Louie could ask for any further details, a mechanical arm grabbed the platform Olimar was standing on, pulling him away from the machine. A Hocotatan Vector beam intercepted the ex-captain on the platform, pulling him up to the ceiling. At the top, a metal cage encased Olimar, leaving him far out of Louie's reach. All the while, an electrified gate was erected in front of the geyser.

As if the fun didn't have to stop there. The generator took the first offense, charging electricity around its body.

* * *

**The following is just a little promotional preview for the fic.**

* * *

"What!?" Louie yelled, "'It has a resistance!? You're kidding me, right? We worked our crappers off to get here, you're telling me we can't kill it!?"

_I did not give this attacker a resistance to floroformic acid;_ a_nd as much as I would love to counter this resistance, I lack the ability. At least not from here, _The Blue Onion asserted, _The Batton is still capable of damaging the cyborg's armor, it will only take more time. The more blue pikmin you can keep alive, the faster it will take._

"If that's what I have to do," Louie sighed, "And, uh, you are right, I shouldn't have blown up."

Louie was quite grateful for the camo pikmin in his party. The tank the machines had recruited as the cave boss (a metal-armored sphere, with two pepperbox machine guns on either side and a set of tractor treads mounted below) had, it seemed, been unable to see the party. The machine guns on the tank looked particularly nasty, and not something Louie wanted to be fired upon by.

Within the field of the Cloakmin, Louie drew the Baton, and activated its gun form. He fired, doing some damage to the cybernetic tank, but even the cloakmin could not conceal the shot's origin. The tank aimed its guns, and rapidly fired, the twelve-barreled guns rotating wildly. Louie moved out of the way, weakening the cloaking field around his party, but also keeping the party safe from energy blasts. He slowed gradually, restoring his cloak, loosed off three more shots, and then dodged the tank's return fire. His health scanner was able to visually register that the cyborg had taken damage, but it still wasn't very significant. This was going to be a long duel.


End file.
